Viewing from afar, with the paralysis that extreme ideologies have led to, one has to wonder whether the US system of government, once so admired for its system of checks and balances, can ever function as it once did in the future.

When you have crazed Republican ideologues willing to burn down the metaphorical house to further their positions and an electorate that seems ready to return many of them to office, what hope for the future?

When I was just a little girl in the late 1940s and early 50s, when it was beginning to become obvious to more people than just world leaders that the US was becoming what we now call a "world hegemon," my mother -- an avid and well-read politiphile -- said to me, "Well, all empires have one thing in common: they fall." I have often thought about those words, but until recently I never thought I would live to see it. Now I can watch the fall on my teevee.

If my mother were still alive, she would be quite sad about it, as she believed that the US had the best political system of all the democracies -- although she did always say that Americans didn't appreciate it enough, and that American politicos were in danger of squandering what their Founding Fathers had bequeathed them. I'm sure she would have been as nervous as I was when Americans voted Ronald Reagan into office. For me, that was when my mother's words about empire first began meeting up with reality.

1. I can confidently say from reading Tea Party comments on stories in the Daily Telegraph (UK) that most of them are very ignorant of relevant facts and confused about the world around them. One regrets having to call them stupid, perhaps "uneducated" would be better, but they definitely give that impression. So any hope that they will "think" about Walt's points is quite vain, in my view. (Because the Telegraph features right wing pundits on its pages it tends to attract American reactionaries to comment.)
2. I have wondered when the US began to lose its collective mind. I cannot, obviously, prove it; but I suspect that the psychological trauma of 9/11 really unhinged many Americans. Used to the idea that the US was immune from outside attack, when that myth was exploded, the public in general lost its bearings. And of course the neocon use of that confusion to lie us into the Iraq war only compounded the damage. The ease with which lies worked to stir up war fervor told the extreme right wing that it was not difficult to addle the public brain and it has used the Tea Party very effectively to do that in domestic affairs. This preposterous attempt now at blackmail re the debt limit to protect ridiculously low tax rates on the rich is a clear result. How it will turn out is not clear. I cannot think it will have any good result.

... those who weren't paying attention at the time. The rats were glutting themselves in the barn on many sides, and warnings about how this would wind up were frequent. The 1989 book Liar's Poker laid out in detail the corruption of Wall Street, and was welcomed only as a good read. And so on. The book's author likely should have gone to jail for what he admitted, but of course, didn't.

Osama bin Laden was one of several voices suggesting that American policies in the Middle East would bring grief to America, and this has come true.

In one of the great crackpot moments of American history, the FBI director of the day told the Senate in closed session in May 1998 that there need be no fear -- the FBI would have a functioning counterterrorism capability by 2005. He then went back to his office and issued his testimony to the world by press release. It explained exactly where the FBI deficiencies lay, and must have been a most remarkable gift to the late Mr bin Laden, ever attentive to news from the US and Europe. The Freeh testimony and press release of May 1998 mentioned him by name.

The Nineties was the Age of Smug, and looking back on it with pleasure makes little sense.

when the economy is humming along. Today with a serious economic crises entering its 4th year it is showing some weaknesses. The problem is that we really do not have a political party that represents the interests of the working and lower middle classes. Both Republicans and Democrats primarily represent the corporate and financial interests. Hence when voters tried to vote for an "opposition" to Obama's pro Wall Street stance, they elected a bunch of right wing loonies. Ironically, these candidates were funded by the same corporate interests that voted in Obama.

What seems to have broken down in the present political scene, is that too many of the right wing loonies have slipped off their leashes and are actually trying to carry out the policies that they promised during their demagogic campaigns.

I really do not see this as necessarily bad. Maybe the bond markets will go crazy, but personally I am getting tired of seeing our government (under both Bush and Obama) spending all of our resources trying to settle the 'markets'. Maybe if the Republicans upset the apple cart, we might see that the big problem is not the equity and bond markets, but rather unemployment. After all, those markets are supposed to reflect the health of the real economy of production and consumption, not lead it.

Tea Party for the current debt ceiling impasse. The Republicans were voted into a majority in the House, and they do not want to alienate their base by agreeing to increased taxes on the wealthy. They have the right to do so, and the rest of us can oppose them if we don't like it. The Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress are going to have to find a face-saving compromise. Obama doesn't want a 6-month deal because next year is an election year and he correctly realizes the House Republicans will again hold his feet to the fire and probably weaken his chances to be re-elected. The real problem is that the "power elite" in this country are mostly Republicans who do not want to pay more taxes, even though they presumably could afford to do so.

Same old, same old from Professor Walt; he's the most one-note blogger on all of FP.

"People like Tom Friedman extolled America's virtues in books like The Lexus and the Olive Tree, arguing that the rest of the world would have to embrace "DOS.Capitalism 6.0" (in other words, our system), or fall by the wayside. Overall, a powerful aura of competence enhanced U.S. influence and magnified our "hard power." "

Friedman purveys whatever is popular the moment; he does not truly believe in anything, and is profoundly weak in his tendency to give ludicrous, trendy monikers to age-old, boring phenomena. To wit: he has variously extolled the virtues of American capitalism (which is just the same capitalism that drove the entire world's development from the 1400s onward), Chinese developmental autocracy (a classic case of autocrats simply being lucky enough to be around when a boom occurred in the background), and how the rest of Europe should imitate Ireland's unstoppable "Celtic Tiger" economic model (oops).

"Why should Pakistanis, Afghanis, Europeans, Chinese, Thais, Mexicans, Venezuelans, or anybody else take our advice on how to govern, when they watch the sorry set of ignorant clowns who are holding the rest of us hostage? "

This is a false dichotomy. These countries (esp. Pakistan, China, Venezuela, and Afghanistan) never really took our advice in the first place, which is ultimately more detrimental to them than to us, seeing as how America's interest in continued safe global trade and democratic government has almost single-handedly made the world a livable place for the past 65 years. How can someone who does not listen to you STOP taking your advice? It does not matter how well or poorly America fares: commentators like Professor Walt will always concoct a story about how America is losing its influence, to autocratic states which have no vision beyond their own preservation and enrichment.

Since no one knows what will happen in the event of a "default," and since the makeup of the US's debt is such that such an event could likely not even be so bad (read: the Fed and American citizens own far more debt than anyone else), your post is another exercise in histrionics.

My feeling, ALEXBC, is that Stephen Walt doesn't let wishful thinking get in the way of sober analysis of how ridiculous our policy-making process is likely to appear to the rest of the world right now. As far as I can tell, you haven't presented a serious argument as to why sober people shouldn't share Walt's pessimism.

informative in ways seldom seen in the MSM, and capable of speaking truth to power, I agree that Tom Freidman's contributions are shallow and heavily biased toward whatever political viewspoint has captured his fancy. Your comments suggest that you view Walt as just another political hack, while I see him as an intellectual hero willing to debate his views fully with informed individuals. He, Mearsheimer, and many others will some day receive the recognition they derserve for courageously challenging the problems with "US foreign policy. In the past, he has given inivited addresses to the Army War College, so somebody at that important institituion thinks he has something worth saying...

I do believe the US is declining. Our reputation IS falling in many parts of the world. We're wearing out our diplomatic welcome for sure. But, economically, though we have real challenges and problems (and I have argued this position forcefully) we have to admit that the 10yr T-note is still under 3%. Moodys, Barrons forecasts haven't caused the rates to rise one bit. For whatever reason, investors around the world have concluded that we are still the prettiest girl at the dance. Some of this might well be attributed to economic terrorism--as some call it. Wall St. has placed huge bets on EU debt default as US pressures have risen. A good FP man would explain the economic terrorism that large, rich countries play on the globe. Russia and the Arabs have likely supported oil prices--though I don't believe either wants prices over $100/barrel as this become deflationary. But, there's much more than this, I would love SWalt to write a column on this, cause it's important.

This is a course I tell you, telling the Palestinians that direct negotiations is the only way for peace... you got your own direct negotiations, have fun!

Nice piece in Nyt about the game of chicken yesterday, and since this dynamic is a race to act more crazy what you need is a 3rd player, to alter this dynamic.

Seems that Obama needs the American people as much as Palestine needs UN... and somehow these are not optimistic options!

...... but I wonder wether a large part of the reason why this particular battle is going down to the wire is because the Congress has already seen Obama fold when faced by an intransigent foe (and, yes, I'm looking at you, Mr. Netanyahu).

After all, the cavalier way that Bibi plays dice with Israel's future in order to ensure that Israel keeps those settlements is flat-out crazy, yet Obama has demonstrated - repeatedly - that he will fold rather than tell the Israelis some home truths i.e. Giving Nothing Away aways runs the risk of Losing It All.

Maybe the Tea Party loonies see that and say to themselves: Well, if BIBI can browbeat the President then Why Can't I......

The whole thing is a Ponzi scheme and has been all along. Sociel Security si prbably the biggest Ponzi scheme of them all.

America's economic booms have been legrley fueled by it's ability to print the accepted international currency, so it effectiely kicked the can of reality down the road for future generations. Now we are witnessing a perfect storm. Not only is the US bankrupt, but the dollar is in freefall and when al that paper is sent back to our shores and redeemed, that wil be the day of reckoning.

Roach of Morgan Stanley who knows China well tells of the disgust and disbelief of the Chinese that US politics could be so stupid as the clown show in Washington indicates. China of course has thought up to recently that US debt was a super safe investment and were happy to keep our interest rates low by buying lots of our bonds. Now this has changed and China will have to find new policies. None of them will be pain free for the US.

The late, great French political analyst, Raymond Aron, once said, "The 20th century amply demonstrates that people are most unwilling to give up their passions for their interests." FDR wondered aloud how business people, whose preferred system he was saving, could have been so vitriolic in their opposition.

And on it goes...

First, here we have here with the debt ceiling struggle, an example of democracy, that system of governance we revere so much we're willing to kill lesser peoples (those with dark skins mostly) in order to inflict it.

With a success rate of < 3%, mind you. (Hegre)

Second, the other half of our national religion: the free market, which we managed to crash in 2008, encourages corruption, not only in business, but in our legal and political system as well.

"America's Hard Sell" Now marked down.

The big win of the Tea Party with its blackmail tactics has exposed the minimal influence of liberal economists on US politics and US opinion in general. One thing that needs to be studied is why liberal intellectuals have lost so much influence and why nobody seems to listen to them any longer. Brad Delong, Paul Krugman and Mark Thoma are as big losers in all this as is President Pushover and the liberal Democrats.

When the budget crunch came it has been solved by cutting "defense" spending. Ezra Klein has it all on his blog. I predicted over a year ago that before too long the US empire was going to be too expensive to maintain. And that time has come. That was not publicly discussed during the whole messy affair, but the people in Washington who put together the final package of cuts used Defense to get most of them. So while liberals bemoan the Tea Party victory, it has that silver lining. We may have the Tea Party to thank for toppling the US empire. Without really meaning to do so.

So now the Hill People and their shaman on The Avenue have averted the manmade crisis of the debt ceiling, shackling the American economy with terms that ensure its failure and the American democracy with new forms of governance akin to oligarchies from antiquity. Are we the people better off for it? In no way. Our society will be lucky to survive.

Nor is our economy now safe once more, for the manufactured problem and its pathetic solution are each seen by investors as additional reasons to exercise caution investing in American debt. The cost of our debt will rise assuredly.

The mainstream press, toadying not even to its financial masters' best interests but rather to some fantasy notion of societal comity, trumpets the occasion as a success, even a triumph! What a cacophony of sophistic idiocy.

As individuals, we Americans are (a) wondering how unreal our existence has become and make neo-survivalist plans, (b) jumping to perceived opportunities to make hay from this insanity, (c) organizing to protect our dwindling collective assets in the face of privatization's onslaught and exploitation, and/or (d) -- the apparent majority response -- withdrawing to perceived safe zones where people discuss neither politics nor religion and things will get better because ... well, just because. Maybe there is a Big Guy in the Sky who will fix things. So the majority hopes, but does not believe.

In time -- probably not far into the future -- the schisms being promoted by the recent policy circus, exacerbated by slippage of our fair nation in the world order due to environmental extremes and military expenditures, will tear the social fabric of America in a dozen-dozen ways.

This devolution will be viewed as a tragedy by many around the world and within American's ruling class. But for many global citizens, including many Americans, it will be the first opportunity in many decades, even a century, for genuine respite and reorganization on more rational terms.

Ultimately, as the ruptures widen, the Pyrrhic victory of the Debt Ceiling Crisis may finally be perceived as a psychological victory for its survivors, but at considerable cost in terms of objective quality of life; sense of security in the world, at home as well as abroad; and confidence that "our best days are just ahead." They assuredly are not.

To paraphrase Bill Maher, politicians should pledge to be honest that we are "gracefully descending to second-rank nationhood" and ask Americans "to help stick the landing." The events of the past weeks have revealed that all of our our engines are not working. The elegance of our fall is in question.

"We are on the brink of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation starts down that path - isolation, overstretch, the uniting of local and global forces opposed to imperialism, and in the end bankruptcy. RIO quot; Chalmers Johnson.